Newburgh food pantry shares Easter spirit

NEWBURGH — Almost 300 families came to the St. Mary's Church food pantry on Good Friday morning for some help to make their Easter a little easier.

BY NATHAN BROWN

NEWBURGH — Almost 300 families came to the St. Mary's Church food pantry on Good Friday morning for some help to make their Easter a little easier.

Shortly after the pantry opened, there was a line stretching around the corner of Mannix Hall, the gym of the former St. Mary's School where the pantry is held on the third Friday of each month.

People of all ages, from senior citizens to young mothers with their children, browsed the tables and filled their bags with what they needed — dry and canned items, chicken, turkey, spare ribs, some produce. There was also clothing, toiletries, diapers and over-the-counter medication.

The pantry gives out nine tons of food on a typical Friday, said Marietta Allen, director of outreach. The church is in one of Newburgh's poorest neighborhoods.

Allen said people might stop in and get some clothes one week, some pots and pans the next, and those items will improve their lives over time.

"Over a couple years, we will actually raise the standard of living on this side of Newburgh," she said.

The Rev. Bill Scafidi, pastor of the Catholic parish, said the pantry started a year-and-a-half ago and 1,000 families have registered.

"We want to help those who are in need," he said.

Allen said more people have been coming to the pantry as knowledge of it spreads by word of mouth.

That's how Edward Johnson of Newburgh found out about it. Friday was his first time there. Johnson said he has been unemployed since he lost a retail job three years ago.

He said he's looked for work, but the places he has applied don't want to hire someone his age.

"There's a lot of us like that," he said. "Sixty years old, you can't find a job."

He went from unemployment to welfare when the unemployment ran out. Now, he's waiting until he turns 62, when he'll be able to collect Social Security.

There was a veterans' resources corner at the pantry Friday, with representatives of Orange County's Veterans Service Agency on hand.

Also there was Benjamin Nakagawa, 15, a Valley Central high-schooler who had gathered food and clothes for needy veterans as his Eagle Scout project.

Nakagawa collected at supermarkets, set up boxes at schools and spread the word in the local weekly papers. People responded.

He ended up with several station wagon-loads, plus a pickup bed full of donated clothes and more than $1,000 in groceries, said his father, Al.

ShopRite gave the pantry $1,500, said Tom Urtz, the supermarket chain's vice president of human resources and community affairs.

The money is spent at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, which means organizers can flip it into $8,000-$10,000 worth of food.

"It's part of ShopRite's commitment to give back to the community in a very local way," Urtz said.

nbrown@th-record.com

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